Worker's Arm Amputated, Suffers Broken Neck After Getting Entangled In Factory Machine

KEY POINTS

A 68-year-old factory worker in England became entangled in part of a machine with a rotating workpiece and chuck
He suffered life-threatening injuries and had to have one arm amputated
The manufacturer he worked for, Superior Machines, was ordered to pay over $90,000

A 68-year-old factory worker in England's East Yorkshire county suffered life-threatening injuries and had one of his arms amputated following a machine-related incident at his workplace over two years ago.

York Magistrates Court was told that the unnamed man had sustained a punctured lung, broken neck and fractures to his back, ribs, arm and shoulder blade after he became entangled in part of a machine with a rotating workpiece and chuck while working at Superior Machines in the village of Fridaythorpe on Jan. 25, 2019, local newspaper The York Press reported.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector discovered that the company — which produced animal feed equipment and different kinds of mills or mixers — had many of its machines left unguarded.

Additionally, the inspector found that machinery standards across the site were poor, prompting them to serve three prohibition and five improvement notices on the company.

Superior Machines pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employee, according to The York Press. The company was fined £60,000 ($82,890) and ordered to pay prosecution costs amounting to £7,618 ($10,520.)

"Entanglement incidents on unguarded rotating machinery are far too common," HSE inspector Sarah Taylor was quoted by the outlet as saying after the hearing.

"This serious incident and devastation could have been avoided if basic safeguards, risk assessments, supervision and instruction had been in place," she added.

A similar incident happened in March at a factory in Chatsworth, South Africa, when a worker lost an arm due to a machine-related accident.

The man, believed to be in his 40s, had one of his arms amputated after it became stuck in an industrial printing machine on the night of March 15.

Responders resorted to the on-scene amputation after an engineer familiar with the machine deemed it impossible for the man's arm to become free in a timely and safe fashion.

The man was then transported to a hospital after the field operation.